Woman gives birth in Etihad not a documented TKI: Ministry

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- An Indonesian woman, detained after the discovery of a newborn infant in an aircraft toilet at Jakarta's international airport, was not identified as a documented migrant worker, an official stated on Monday.

Director of Indonesian Citizens Protection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lalu Muhammad Iqbal remarked here on Monday that the woman believed to be the mother of the ill-fated baby was not on the list of legal Indonesian migrant workers (TKI).

"Her name was not found in the database of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Agency of the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers," Iqbal noted, confirming that the woman was a non-procedural worker.

The local police suspected that the 37-year-old woman secretly gave birth during a flight from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta on Saturday.

The woman was reportedly ill during the Etihad flight and forced the pilot to divert the flight to Bangkok.

The flight departed for Jakarta around an hour later without the sick woman, who flew home on a later flight.

The dead newborn was not found until the flight arrived at Jakarta's International Airport Soekarno-Hatta on Saturday.

The airport's ground cleaners found the baby wrapped in a plastic bag in a drawer in one of the aircraft's toilets.

The cause of death had yet to be determined.

Following police investigation, the woman, with the initial H, was detained on Sunday.